


my heart is gold and my hands are cold

by ruination_fangs



Category: Tales of Berseria
Genre: F/F, Tales of Covert Cupid, oh look it's another gd bed sharing fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-25 13:24:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17726015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruination_fangs/pseuds/ruination_fangs
Summary: Magilou thought she had become numb to certain kinds of warmth, but she's beginning to reconsider.





	my heart is gold and my hands are cold

**Author's Note:**

> Covert Cupid gift for tumblr user Ene6!  
> 

The sky is dark, the forest is relatively quiet, and Velvet has just gotten comfortable in her sleeping roll when a mass of fabric lands in the space between her and the campfire. Within seconds, Magilou has straightened out the thin blankets and burrowed into her own bed, pressed up against Velvet's side. She sighs in contentment, and Velvet stares.

"What are you doing?"

"What's it look like?" Magilou says into her blankets.

"Making yourself a bigger nuisance than usual?"

Magilou gasps. "I'm hurt that you would think such a thing! What have I done to offend you now?"

"Well, for starters," Velvet growls, "this clearing is huge and yet you're still breathing my air."

It's true; the rest of their group has spread out in the wide area around the fire. Across the camp, Eizen sits on a log, staring up at the sky. Rokurou has finally finished polishing his sword and is laying down on the grass. Laphicet elected to sleep with Eleanor tonight - a choice that not long ago would have made Velvet prickle with a possessive kind of envy, but she didn't comment on today.

She must be lonely, knowing her precious Phi doesn't need her; isn't it kind of Magilou to offer herself up as a companion instead?

"You see, Velvet dear," Magilou says, "us mortals still in the possession of our humanity are affected by this little thing we call cold. And it is cold as fuck out here."

"That's why we have a fire," Velvet says.

"But there's only one fire, and there's two sides of me! You see the problem?"

Velvet's lips twitch. "I'm not your personal heater. And keep your voice down, or you'll wake Phi."

Magilou shoots a glance toward the bundle of blankets across the clearing, but the top of Laphicet's head stays still in Eleanor's arms. Ah, to be a young, innocent babe again, peacefully nestled in the bosom of a loved one...

She inches closer to Velvet, and Velvet grumbles. "If you're going to stay here, at least get your hair away from the fire. Come here."

Velvet pulls up her covers and lets Magilou scramble the last few inches into her own bed. The nest of blankets isn't big, but it's not a tight fit, either; Magilou is a small person, after all, just bones and hair and the jagged shards of what was once a whole human being, and she fits easily in the space Velvet carves out for her.

"Didn't anyone ever teach you not to leave your hair loose around an open fire?" she says as she tucks the blanket in around Magilou, hair and all. "There's no river nearby for me to throw you in if something happens."

Magilou almost laughs. It's always a little funny when Velvet goes into Big Sister Mode with her - as if Magilou isn't older, more experienced, already intimately familiar with having her insides turned to ash.

Instead, she says, "Aww, you'd put me out if I caught on fire? That's so sweet!"

"You'd be a hazard to the rest of us otherwise," Velvet says.

"Right, right. We can't endanger your poor, sweet Phi now, can we?"

Velvet makes a sound almost like a chuckle. "Careful, there. You almost sound jealous."

"Me?" Magilou stage-whispers. "Never!"

"I know," Velvet says. "Because you don't care, right?"

There's a weight to Velvet's voice, not quite sarcasm, not quite exasperation, but not sincerity either. It clearly calls for a snippy retort, and yet Magilou freezes. Does Velvet know...? But of course Velvet knows. Magilou hasn't exactly been subtle, following her around, making excuses for her continued involvement, singling her out at every opportunity.

Surely Velvet has realized by now that Magilou's interest in their little quest is no longer superficial. The only question is whether she realizes the extent of that interest - the question that's been keeping Magilou from her own hard-earned beauty rest lately.

"What if I did?" Magilou says, raising her chin out of the blankets. "What torture would you devise to mock me then?" It's a weak challenge, but damn is Velvet's face close, and there's a strange fluttering in her chest that's stopping all her thought processes. That damn broken heart. Falls all to pieces whenever Velvet looks at her.

Velvet's eyes gleam. "Hmm. Maybe something like this."

The last words are hardly more than a breath, a puff of air on Magilou's cheek as Velvet leans down. Their noses brush, and for a breathless and interminable moment she pauses there, as if considering. Then she tilts her head the rest of the way, and Magilou's brain shorts out.

There's no getting around it now. Her traitor heart is beating so loud Velvet must be able to hear it, pounding at her chest as if it's trying to escape into the warm confines of Velvet's.

Even when Velvet pulls back, Magilou doesn't move, watching her slowly open her eyes and scan Magilou's face.

"Hypothetically, of course," she says, though her own breath is a little short.

Magilou opens her mouth, breathes wordless hot air, and closes it to swallow thickly before she manages to answer. "Of course. First you'd have to prove that I care."

Now Velvet really does chuckle, a softer sound than Magilou expected. "We'll see," she says.

 _Oh, well played,_ Magilou thinks, returning her head to its place tucked beneath Velvet's chin. She burns to ask what that means, but no way is she going to give Velvet the satisfaction.

She makes herself comfortable instead, cuddling up next to Velvet as if they've slept this way a thousand times. It hasn't escaped her notice, either, that Velvet has yet to remove her arms from around Magilou's body. In fact, if anything, they've gotten tighter, pulling Magilou in so that there's very little space left between them.

The air inside the blankets is warm now. There's a flush over Magilou's face, invisible with the fire to her back but all too obvious to her. The heat radiates from her core, from all the places where her body meets Velvet's, as if the fire in Velvet's heart has seeped into the empty cavern of Magilou's chest and reminded her own heart to start beating again. And beating, and beating, with the force of will that only her lordship Velvet can muster, aggressively defiant even in the face of certain defeat.

But that's impossible, isn't it? Magilou's heart is too far gone, already rusted over, too damaged to work again. No one could salvage that piece of old junk. No one would want to. The fact that Velvet sometimes makes her think otherwise only proves how foolhardy she's become.

No, the most logical explanation is that this isn't real. The best things in life often aren't, she's learned. But she's made the choice once already to dive headfirst into a happy dream and let everything else drift away. What's one more time?

 _You stupid, stupid girl,_ she thinks, and buries her face deeper into Velvet's nightclothes.

 

...

...

...

 

A rough shake and quiet voice wake Eleanor suddenly, and she opens her eyes to near-darkness. There's a large shadow looming over her, backlit by the low-burning fire and almost shapeless in the dim starlight.

"Eleanor," it says again. "It's your turn for watch."

"I'm awake," Eleanor mumbles, and Rokurou's outline stands up.

Carefully, Eleanor extricates herself from her blankets and Laphicet's arms, tucking him back in and making sure he's still asleep before she leaves. Immediately she shivers and tugs her coat on.

The sky is just barely lightening to the east, the pale gray of predawn, and Eleanor's brow furrows.

"You could have woken me earlier," she says to Rokurou, but he only shrugs.

"You need the sleep more than me. I've still got another good hour, anyway. Maybe more if Velvet's feeling generous."

He retires back to his own bed - really just a single blanket spread out on the grass; doesn't he ever get cold? - and Eleanor looks around their camp. In the low light she can make out Eizen's huddled form a little distance away, and in the other direction, a mass of blankets more closely resembling a real bed. And then Rokurou in front of her, and Phi behind her, and... her sleep-muddled brain pauses. Four beds... isn't something missing?

It's only upon closer inspection, in a little more light, that she finds the platinum-blonde hair of a second body in Velvet's sleeping roll. Magilou is pressed up against Velvet's side, her face hidden against Velvet's collar so that only the top of her head is really visible. And Velvet looks, for once, at peace.

Eleanor stares, wondering if it's all a trick of the light or perhaps a very realistic dream, and then smiles. It occurs to her several times over the next hour or so that she probably shouldn't mention it, but still, when the sun's light begins to wake her companions, she can't help but fix a questioning gaze on Velvet.

Velvet pauses mid-stretch when her eyes meet Eleanor's. Then she glances down at Magilou, who's still grumbling about Velvet letting the cold air into the blankets, and rolls her eyes.

"She kept complaining about being cold."

"What a fool I was!" Magilou cries, rolling over and throwing an arm over her eyes. Rokurou and Laphicet stir in their beds at the sudden sound. "Turning to Velvet for warmth, when nothing is colder than our daemon lord's heart!"

Velvet huffs as she walks away toward their supplies, but on second glance, Eleanor thinks that underneath her arm there's a smile on Magilou's face.


End file.
